With breakthroughs in technology every year, from improvements in transportation to new trip planning applications, wanderlusts can travel to more secluded places. However, there are some places that will remain off limits -- and for good reason.

The sites below are among the most fascinating on earth -- from the vault containing the highly coveted, secret formula for Coca-Cola to an island inhabited by thousands of snakes. Some are temporarily closed off from the public while others will remain so permanently, meaning exploration will have to be conducted via imagination.

When Russia launched the world's first satellite in 1957, it revealed a glaring hole in legal policy — how should we regulate outer space? Should Russia get in trouble for violating international law by flying a satellite over US airspace without permission?

It was clear we'd need a new set of rules to govern airspace as humanity started climbing higher into the sky and eventually into outer space.

That, and the Cold War idea that the United States or Russia would try to colonize space and create a nuclear weapons base there helped inspire the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

The treaty was the founding body of space law and it's inspired several other international conventions and agreements.

Here are some of the major laws that currently govern space, and what policies we'll need in the future:

One of the most important bodies of space law is the United Nations "Outer Space Treaty." It lays out several rules that dictate how countries must behave in space.

1. Space is common ground and everyone is allowed to explore it.

2. But anyone exploring space has to do it peacefully.

3. That means no military bases.

4. And it's not just military bases — no country can claim any land in space.

5. The "Moon Agreement" elaborates on the idea that no country can own any celestial object.

Not that people don't try.

6. Anything that launches into space has to be registered.

7. If there's a spaceship crash, the state is held responsible for the damage.

8. In fact, people were so worried about damages from space exploration, that they created a whole separate liability treaty.

In the United States, various government agencies follow private activities in outer space, but the bulk of the oversight comes through the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Space Transportation. Any American citizen who wants to launch a rocket or other kind of spacecraft into orbit must obtain authorization from the FAA, as would any foreigner who launches within U.S. territory. The FAA regulates the commercial sector's space activities by requiring parties to obtain launch and re-entry licenses. The office spends up to six months vetting launch plans for potential harm to the public that could occur if something went awry—like falling debris or the formation of a toxic cloud from an explosion. During the review of an application, the FAA also investigates a plan's compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, with deciding factors being whether the pollution from the launch could harm a historic site or the natural environment, or if noise from the launch could be detrimental to surrounding plant and animal life. To get a launch license, a company must prove that it could take financial responsibility if anything went wrong, and that its activities won't threaten foreign policy or national security interests. Additionally, a lunar launch team in the United States would have to get permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use government communications frequencies while in orbit.

Have you heard the one where it's illegal to come in contact with space aliens?

This message says that a law already passed by Congress makes it illegal to have contact with a space alien and establishes penalties for anybody who does. It specifies Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

A 1530 petition from 85 English clergymen and lords asks Pope Clement VII to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The seals of many of the signatories were affixed to the petition, each held in place by red ribbon. This is considered the source of the term “red tape.” Clement refused, of course, leading to the establishment of the Anglican Church.

Michelangelo penned a letter to the pope warning that Vatican guards hadn’t received paychecks in three months, and that they were threatening to walk off the job.

A year after Columbus landed in what became North America, Pope Alexander VI issued Inter Cetera, the 1493 papal bull that split the New World between Spain and Portugal.

There are letters from Abraham Lincoln as well as Jefferson Davis, who wrote to try to convince Pope Pius IX that the South was an innocent victim of Northern aggression. Neither man was Catholic.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the notion that Mary was conceived without original sin, was articulated in 1854 on a piece of parchment that’s in the archives.

Famous Vatican trials were recorded with handwritten transcripts that are housed there, including cases against the Knights Templar in the early 14th century and astronomer Galileo Galilei in the 17th, who was tried by the Vatican for heresy and forced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest.

When Sweden’s Queen Christina abdicated in 1654, she converted to Catholicism from Lutheranism, moved to Rome, and today she is one of the few women buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. There’s a letter to the pope announcing her conversion.

The Vatican archives are far from being an amusement park for conspiracy theorists. In fact, they might be quite boring for the general audience: nothing too scandalous, noting too secret. Actually, the aura that covers the Archivum Secretum Apostolicum Vaticanum — that’s its official full name — might only be due to a mistranslation from the original Latin: “secretum,” far from being translated as “secret,” simply means “personal.” Whomever has ever had a secretaire (a secretary desk, an escritoire, hopefully a Chippendale) might probably get a hint of what’s at stake here: the Vatican “Secret Archive” is a collection of personal documents, mainly private letters, chronicles and historical records of past popes. Sorry to burst your bubble, Dan Brown & Co.

The Vatican claims it contains documents dating back to the 8th century but many believe it contains much, much older artifacts. Since divulging items contained in the collection is considered a grave sin punishable by excommunication from the church, what truly lies inside is a mystery.

Gaining access to the Vatican Secret Archives

It is generally believed that the only human on earth with unfettered access to the Vatican Secret Library is the Pope himself (technically, the Pope is the owner of the Secret Archives). Rules allow for special permits to be provided for carefully accredited researchers but journalists, students, and amateur historians are barred.

For those that manage to gain access, there are strict limitations to what archive material they can access and view. Even for those rare individuals who are allowed to enter, there are entire sections that are strictly forbidden.

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Researchers are only allowed to access three items per day. The items they wish to view must be specifically documented in their request, a remarkable feat given nobody truly knows what’s inside.

Researchers are only allowed to bring a pen and paper into the vaults. While inside the library, they are accompanied by two priests and two guards that stay with them throughout their time in the library. And their visit is timed.

Antarctica has long been considered one of the most mysterious places on Earth. Therefore, it is not strange that numerous ‘conspiracy theories, claims, and accounts’ have been proposed throughout the years, trying to explain some of the occurrences on Earth’s most isolated continent. For years people have claimed that Antarctica is one of the most guarded places on Earth for a good reason. Many authors have proposed that there are many interesting things hidden beneath Antarctica that are kept away from society.